Medical Morons: These Patients Ignored Their Doctors And The Results Were Disastrous
It’s not always easy to follow advice, even when that advice comes from a medical professional who has our best interests at heart. But take care: there’s a reason they have a medical degree and we don’t.
These stubborn patients found that lesson out the hard way—and the results were terrifying. Here, medical staff members share their patients’ closest calls and most dangerous rebellions.
1. Fatal Flaw
When I was in medical school, I had a gentleman in his late 60s come in for chest pain.
We found he had suffered a large heart attack, but he refused surgical treatment because he wanted to bring his car home and planned on taking an ambulance back to the hospital.
Apparently, he was in the parking ramp and it cost $20 a day to park, so he didn’t want to pay.
He came back by ambulance and my worst fears happened—he went into full cardiac arrest with no pulse and quickly passed away. The doctor had to call his son and explain what happened. The son was like, “Yeah that sounds like dad, he’s always been cheap.”
2. Hear No Evil
This happened so often it was almost a non-issue. We would basically just shrug our shoulders and say, “Welp.”
I had a patient who kept adjusting her insulin dosage against my advice because she was terrified of having her feet amputated like her mom. She had several occasions of dangerously low blood sugar as a result...one of which put her in the ICU.
I also had a lady who had the opposite problem: raging diabetes but in deep denial, so she would never take her insulin. She was in the ICU multiple times for diabetic ketoacidosis. I also had a ton of patients on dialysis who skipped treatment for whatever reason. Most of the time, their reasoning was disturbing—they just didn't feel like going.
They would come in with their electrolytes all messed up and would have to get emergency dialysis inpatient treatment.
I had a billion old fat men with chest pain for weeks refuse to come into the hospital to be evaluated for cardiovascular issues and either pass away at home or come back a week later with extensive issues. Some people just don’t listen.
3. A Vicious Circle
Not a doctor, but I have worked in the addictions field before.
Too many clients have passed away or will because, despite the repeated warnings from their doctors that they have almost no liver function or that what they’re drinking is giving them all sorts of brain damage, they continue to drink hard.
But a lot of these guys feel like they have nothing to live for but the bottle. It’s really heartbreaking.
